Disney’s Latest Attraction? 300 Drones Flying in Formation

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Disney’s Latest Attraction? 300 Drones Flying in Formation

Intel

With the push of a button, 300 drones ascend from a ground station and float over a nearby lake. You can't see them at first—it's well after sundown—but you can hear them falling into formation. The music starts, the drones light up, and the choreography begins. This isn't just the latest Disney World attraction. It's a whole new breed of entertainment.

That's the hope for both Disney and Intel, anyway, as they prepare to launch previews of their "Starbright Holidays" extravaganza in Orlando. The drones are Intel's new Shooting Star quadcopters, and while this isn't Intel's biggest air show—the company synced up 500 of them earlier this year in Sydney—it will be the first implementation in which Disney's imagineers helped guide the production.

"Our drones, together with Disney's expertise in animation as well as storytelling, and the music score, together make what we think is going to be a groundbreaking for of entertainment," says Josh Walden, general manager of Intel's New Technology Group.

It's taken five months of close coordination between Intel and Disney to get this far, all to the end of creating a live experience that's as engrossing as it is technologically innovative. And what's fun for the whole family today may end up having more serious applications down the road.

Drone Home

The final details of the Starbright Holidays show are still being worked out. What we do know, though, is how the Shooting Star drones work. In short, very impressively.

I absolutely see this applicable to controlling a fleet of drones in a commercial space.

Josh Walden, general manager of Intel's New Technology Group

The drones themselves don't look like much, but then again they're not supposed to; they're simply flying LED delivery systems, capable of creating over four billion color combinations. They each weigh a little over half a pound, are just over a foot long and wide, and feature a soft-frame construction of plastics and foam (safety first).

What matters much more is what the drones can do when they're aloft. Namely, anything you tell them to, in any combination. What Intel has created is not simply drone hardware, but an entire platform on which to build aerial spectacles.

"They way that they work is that they wirelessly talk with the computer. The drones don't actually communicate with each other," says Walden. "You program them upfront for the light show itself, and then the drones essentially are independent."

Intel

They're also highly adaptable. Drones aren't assigned light show roles until after a computer has queried each individually, assessing characteristics like battery level and GPS signal before divvying up assignments. Once the algorithms crunch through which drone is best for a given flight, an operator can deploy them with the push of a button.

While 300 sounds like (and is) a lot of drones, several also wait in reserve, just in case. "We have more drones on the ground than the actual light show needs," says Walden. In the event that an active drone suffers a battery failure or a GPS glitch, a backup can dynamically sub in. The Shooting Star models can fly within five feet of one another, and can stay airborne for up to 20 minutes, though the Starbright Holidays exhibition should wind up a bit shorter.

While the drone show isn't a Disney exclusive, Walden says his team is "heads down" on making sure the Starbright debut goes off smoothly. The technology used to make that happen, though, could also have implications well beyond the amusement park.

Global Swarming

Drones that can be programmed in days or even hours to fly in tight formation? That's good for an aerial ballet, but could be even better for a much broader range of applications. After all, what's one drone when you can send 500?

"I absolutely see this applicable to controlling a fleet of drones in a commercial space," says Walden. It wouldn't be surprising some day to see companies deploy dozens or hundreds of drones to complete inspections of construction areas, assist in agricultural work, or even form a search and rescue party in the event of a natural disaster.

Walden acknowledges that the technology isn't quite there today, and neither are federal regulations. There's only so much you can do with a drone army that needs to remain within your line of sight.

Still, the FAA has already signaled its willingness to work with companies like Intel, recently began offering waivers from certain drone restrictions (including, crucially for Starbright Holidays, the ability to fly drones at night). It helps, too, that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich chairs the FAA's Drone Advisory Committee.

Until those changes actually take place? A dazzling drone light show sounds like a perfectly wonderful way to kill time.